I buy this. You don't have to convince me that Donohue is a hack and this argument is a hack job. And I now think I have a much better feel for the context. Even so, I'd dispute the science analogy.
"In a sense, it is a 'professional' audience. The fields of study it involves have their own jargon, generally held beliefs, etc. As an example, a scientist might say that Evolution/Global Warming would have the same problem in phrasing. They are generally accepted among people that actually, uh, think about this stuff, but a lot of people think there's a debate. Similarly, the dominant feminist interpretation of the bible? Patriarchy everywhere. 'Generally interpreted' indeed."
The distinction I'd make is that the professionals who interpret biological data and climatology data to draw larger theories are scientists. Even among opponents that's fairly accepted as a given and why they try to prop up opposing supposedly scientific theories. By contrast, feminists are only a subset of the professionals who intepret the Bible.
Even so, it's a legit short-hand so long as it's widely understood in the community. Far be it from me to define every communties' jargon. However, I don't think the public discourse really cares about the audience that you're writing for. So if someone wants to work for a politician and be hired based on his or her blog work, that person has to be prepared to defend that work as if he or she was writing to a general audience.
Fortunately, most people don't want to work for politicians. :P
no subject
"In a sense, it is a 'professional' audience. The fields of study it involves have their own jargon, generally held beliefs, etc. As an example, a scientist might say that Evolution/Global Warming would have the same problem in phrasing. They are generally accepted among people that actually, uh, think about this stuff, but a lot of people think there's a debate. Similarly, the dominant feminist interpretation of the bible? Patriarchy everywhere. 'Generally interpreted' indeed."
The distinction I'd make is that the professionals who interpret biological data and climatology data to draw larger theories are scientists. Even among opponents that's fairly accepted as a given and why they try to prop up opposing supposedly scientific theories. By contrast, feminists are only a subset of the professionals who intepret the Bible.
Even so, it's a legit short-hand so long as it's widely understood in the community. Far be it from me to define every communties' jargon. However, I don't think the public discourse really cares about the audience that you're writing for. So if someone wants to work for a politician and be hired based on his or her blog work, that person has to be prepared to defend that work as if he or she was writing to a general audience.
Fortunately, most people don't want to work for politicians. :P